Civil War Battles in Photos and News articles

Subject Area(s):

• United States History
• K-12: Language Arts

Grade Level(s):

• 11th Grade

Description:

The Teacher Librarian (TL) and Social Studies teacher will work together on this unit. Eleventh graders will research different Civil War battles through photos and newspaper articles.

Students will work in pairs using the American Memory Collection, the Historical NY Times, and the Ken Burns The Civil War site. Final projects will be PowerPoint presentations done in the "Ken Burns" style, combining archival photos with narration.

Goals & Objectives:

Instructional Goals:

Students will

• Efficiently locate information on a selected topic from a variety of Internet sources.
• Integrate information into a cohesive presentation.
• Students will learn more about their battle as well as other battles as a result of the presentations.
• Students will cite their sources.Work together in teams to complete the project.

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to

• Find five images related to their Civil War battle on the American Memory site.
• Find two maps relating to their battle on the American Memory site.
• Find three newspaper articles about their battle using the Historical NY Times database.
• Find two pieces of additional information for their presentation on the Ken Burn’s The Civil War site.
• Present their findings in images, the written word, and the spoken word, using PowerPoint.
• Students will create a slide that properly cites the three sites used in the lesson as well as any other sources.
• Work as a positive and contributing member of their team.

Motivational Goals:

• To increase students’ confidence in their researching abilities and in being able to disseminate and present information.
• Maintain or increase students’ excitement about the research process.
• Promote students’ view of themselves as researchers.

Materials:

See attached lesson plan in Supporting Files

Procedures:

See attached lesson plan in Supporting Files

Assessment:

See attached lesson plan in Supporting Files

Supporting Files:

• panshinlp2.doc
  Complete Lesson Plan
• panshinlp2sheet.doc
  Research Tips

Standards:

National Information Literacy Standards (K-12)

Accesses information efficiently and effectively.

• Formulates questions based on information needs.
• Develops and uses successful strategies for locating information.

Uses information accurately and creatively

• Produces and communicates information and ideas in appropriate formats

Participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.

• Collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies, to identify information problems and to seek their solutions.

Information Skills and Subskills (K-16)

Definition

• Identifies requirements of research task
• Determines amount/type of information needed to complete research task

Selection

• Narrows topic to be explored

Planning

• Formulates a search strategy
• Creates a general framework for organizing information found

Exploration

• Locates and accesses information resources
• Explores range of information resources

Collection

• Locates relevant information within selected sources
• Identifies and extracts relevant information from selected sources

Organization

• Filters out irrelevant information
• Summarizes/synthesizes/classifies final information
• Organizes final information for presentation

Presentation

• Presents results
• Subject: K-12: Language Arts

National Content Standards (K-12)

Reading

• Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts

Listening and Speaking

• Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes

Viewing

• Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
• Subject: United States History

Era 5 - Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

• Understands the causes of the Civil War
• Understands the course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people